VENTURA : City to Conduct Drinking Water Test

Ventura began a citywide testing program Tuesday designed to determine if lead and copper levels in residents’ drinking water are safe.

Seventy-five city employees, selected by address to represent a cross-section of homes throughout the city, volunteered to collect a sample of cold tap water Tuesday morning, said city spokeswoman Carol Green.

The samples were required to be taken first thing in the morning from a tap normally used for drinking and cooking water, Green said. The samples will be taken to a state-certified laboratory where they will be tested for lead and copper content, she said.

Sampling in homes is part of a new water quality regulation required by the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act, Green said. Under the act’s requirements, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency mandates that all large water agencies test drinking water in their customers’ homes.

Ventura’s water, which comes from Casitas Lake, the Ventura River and underground wells, is safe when it leaves city treatment plants, a city official said.

But many homes, particularly those built in the 1920s and 1930s, have pipes made from materials containing lead. When water stands still in piping, it can dissolve the lead in the pipes, pushing lead concentrations to unsafe levels.

The goal of the sampling program is to tell city water officials how much treatment is needed to make water safe even after it passes through older pipes, Jackson said.

A second testing will be required in six months, officials said.